This insightful book presents a detailed analysis of the activation policies utilized by governments across Europe and the US. Editors Henning Jørgensen and Michaela Schulze bring together a wealth of experts to collate key developments in activation policies, acknowledging the different ways in which countries and governments attempt to combat unemployment and the importance of subnational governance capabilities.

Contributing authors explore multiple activation policies through political, policy, polity, economic and cultural lenses, outlining the consequences of these for the unemployed and other actors involved. In particular, partisan politics and central steering experienced in the UK, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Switzerland and the US are analyzed, as well as social security and labour market policies developed in the Netherlands, Norway and Germany. The book emphasizes the advantages of investigating national rather than cross-national studies as they bring to the forefront crucial actors and administrative systems that affect activation reforms. Ultimately, it highlights why and how activation is developed in different ways in national systems and advocates for further research as activation is entering a new phase.

Unemployment and Activation Policies in Europe and the US is an excellent resource for students and researchers specialising in comparative social policy, public policy, labour market policy and the sociology of work.